(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for presenting information contained in messages in a user interface of a multimedia terminal, in which method a message contains at least one component, and which message is transmitted to the multimedia terminal in a system for transmitting multimedia messages. The invention also relates to a system for transmitting multimedia messages, comprising means for transmitting a message to a multimedia terminal which comprises a user interface for presenting information contained in the messages, and each message contains at least one component. Furthermore, the invention relates to a transmitting multimedia terminal which comprises means for forming messages of at least one component, and means for transmitting the messages. The invention also relates to a receiving multimedia terminal which comprises means for receiving messages, and a user interface for presenting information contained in the messages, and each message contains at least one component.
(2) Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Wireless communication networks and the Internet network expand fast, and the number of their users is increasing. It is possible to introduce Internet services in digital mobile stations of wireless communication networks, such as so-called media phones, for example by the WAP technology. The WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) is an open standard which is designed to support globally a majority of digital mobile communication networks, such as the GSM (Global System for Mobile communications), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), PDC (Personal Digital Cellular), CDMA IS-95 (Code Division Multiple Access), TDMA IS-136 (Time Division Multiple Access), and third generation networks, such as the WCDMA (Wideband CDMA) and CDMA-2000. Because the WAP system was developed only recently and because the specifications of the WAP system define in some cases only the framework for different implementations, there are no known solutions for implementing certain functions of the WAP system. In the WAP system (FIG. 1), the terminal using the WAP protocol for external communication, the wireless terminal MS (wireless terminal, mobile station), here a so-called WAP terminal, can communicate with a server 20 in the Internet network. One example to be mentioned of such a wireless terminal available as a WAP terminal is Nokia 7110. The display of the WAP terminal is relatively small, which restricts the quantity of information to be displayed on the display at a time. This causes problems e.g. when browsing Internet home pages which are typically designed to be presented on the display of an ordinary computer.
The connection between the WAP terminal and the Internet network is implemented by a WAP gateway 15 which functions as a means for transmitting messages between the WAP terminal MS and the Internet network 18. If necessary, the WAP gateway 15 converts the messages addressed by the WAP terminal MS to the Internet network 18 to messages complying with an Internet protocol, such as the TCP/IP protocol (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). In a corresponding way, messages addressed from the Internet network 18 to the WAP terminal MS in the wireless network 12 are converted, if necessary, in the WAP gateway 15 to messages complying with the WAP protocol (e.g. WSP, Wireless Session Protocol). The WAP terminal MS can be, per se, any device which uses the WAP protocol for external communication, such as a mobile station of a cellular network or a computer terminal communicating with the wireless network 12 for example via a mobile station of a cellular network. Communication forms supported by the WAP and intended for the transmission of information over the radio channel are called bearers. In the different networks supported by the WAP, these include, e.g., short messages (SMS, Short Message Service), data calls (CSD, Circuit Switched Data) and packet radio or GPRS services, the USSD service (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data), as well as other bearers defined in the WAP specifications.
With respect to the protocols, the WAP system is a hierarchical system. Both the WAP terminal and the WAP gateway comprise a WAP protocol stack to be implemented by means of software, comprising certain WAP protocol layers. The WAP protocol layers include e.g. the WAE layer (Wireless Application Environment), the WAP layer (Wireless Session Protocol), the WTP layer (Wireless Transaction Protocol), and the WDP layer (Wireless Datagram Protocol). The corresponding WAP protocol layers of the WAP terminal and the WAP gateway communicate with each other to implement reliable data transmission between the WAP terminal and the WAP gateway over the defined bearer.
Users of a computer terminal communicating with the Internet network have already for a long time had the chance to retrieve multimedia components, such as short video clips and audio clips in electrical format. As the transmission rates are increased and the properties of mobile stations are improved, interest in the service of transmitting a multimedia message has now arisen also in the mobile network. However, for example in connection with the WAP system, no solution has been presented so far to implement displaying of the multimedia message.
In the Internet network, it is known to use the hypertext markup language (HTML) which can be used for presenting e.g. the location, content, colour and size for multimedia information to be presented on Internet pages. However, the HTML language does not offer a possibility to determine the time of effect of multimedia components, such as the time of displaying a text or the time of playing a sound. Furthermore, with the presently known versions of the HTML language, it is not possible to define transparency presentations in which the multimedia presentation consists of several pages. However, to make the presentation of various advertisements and other information more effective, there is a need to produce e.g. variable parts in the content of pages as well as a need to combine several pages to one presentation. Recently, some solutions have been developed, such as the JAVA programming language, whereby it is possible to implement variable effects of some kind. In view of WAP terminals, however, it is one drawback of such solutions that their implementation requires a relatively large processing and storage capacity in the terminal. This restricts the introduction of the JAVA programming language particularly in portable terminals. In presentations implemented with the JAVA programming language, it is not only the actual presentation information but also the JAVA program for presenting the information that is transmitted.
A fast increase in the use of portable multimedia terminals increases the need to implement versatile messages, such as multimedia messages, in a multimedia terminal.